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I'm of the view that the Sox aren't really this bad


VAfan

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 1, 2015 -> 11:14 AM)
And the big thing that I have learned is that the AL Central may well be the best division in baseball.

 

I don't expect the Twins to be this good for too much longer.

 

The Sox are extremely fortunate not to be 20-30 or something like that. We've out-performed our base-runs expected W-L by 5 wins so far.

 

If you look at how poorly we've hit, a record of 18-31 is almost fitting (that's our expected BaseRuns W-L).

 

There's two things that can happen. One is our hitters like Melky and Eaton stop hitting like crap and our offense turns it around. Or those hitters continue to underperform and we play awful baseball for the rest of the year.

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QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 1, 2015 -> 11:25 AM)
before the season, i would never have thought of that, but now.... i agree.

 

the parity of both the al west and al east is what i am hoping is where the sox can pick up some wins.

 

Sox already sporting a robust 5-1 record against the AL West.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 1, 2015 -> 11:14 AM)
And the big thing that I have learned is that the AL Central may well be the best division in baseball.

 

100% the best division in baseball

 

 

As for the current state of this team. I think their pitching is at the beginning of a stretch of dominance and if they can figure out how to actually score some runs, they are a decent to good team. They put themselves in a big hole though, and Im not sure they can jump 2-3 teams in the central to get a wild card.

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QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 1, 2015 -> 09:10 AM)
Not too worried. Their run differential is a little out of whack from that 5 game disaster of a road trip where they were -29. The 1990 White Sox were +7. If the players start hitting and pitching like they are supposed to, this is a good team.

 

I agree with this.

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QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 1, 2015 -> 11:38 AM)
I don't expect the Twins to be this good for too much longer.

 

The Sox are extremely fortunate not to be 20-30 or something like that. We've out-performed our base-runs expected W-L by 5 wins so far.

 

If you look at how poorly we've hit, a record of 18-31 is almost fitting (that's our expected BaseRuns W-L).

 

There's two things that can happen. One is our hitters like Melky and Eaton stop hitting like crap and our offense turns it around. Or those hitters continue to underperform and we play awful baseball for the rest of the year.

 

I don't expect the Twins to make the playoffs, but them being as good as they have has really upped the level of the AL Central. Coming into this year it was 4 good teams and the Twins. Now, it is 5 solid teams, but some taking their lumps because of how good the others are.

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I think the concern will be how much better other teams get and will the Sox match them. We have already added our impact addition in Rodon. So now we have to hope individual players continue to improve. The Sox do not have any other possible impact players coming back from injury. But the Tigers do for example. I am not convinced yet the AL Central is better than AL East. Most of the East teams look pretty even and it shows when they beat up on each other. But Yankees just took 4 out of 6 from Royals and the White Sox just played well against one of best AL teams. So teams are up and down especially as rosters are still being juggled.

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QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jun 1, 2015 -> 05:56 PM)
I think the concern will be how much better other teams get and will the Sox match them. We have already added our impact addition in Rodon. So now we have to hope individual players continue to improve. The Sox do not have any other possible impact players coming back from injury. But the Tigers do for example. I am not convinced yet the AL Central is better than AL East. Most of the East teams look pretty even and it shows when they beat up on each other. But Yankees just took 4 out of 6 from Royals and the White Sox just played well against one of best AL teams. So teams are up and down especially as rosters are still being juggled.

thinking about what you wrote, and thinking on the teams and the league, i am really getting confuse. i just have to wait and see how it plays out in the next month.

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QUOTE (VAfan @ May 31, 2015 -> 08:04 PM)
Fortunately for my sanity, I haven't been watching these first 49 games that closely. They have certainly been putrid, especially on offense.

 

But that actually gives me cause for optimism.

 

- We're only 3 games under .500.

- The Minnesota Twins are in first place, and lead us by only 7 games.

- The AL East is led by two teams that are each only 1 game over .500.

- The AL West second place team is only 2 games over .500

- There are only 3 AL teams more than 5 games above .500

- In other words, we are within 3 games of all but 4 teams in the AL, and 5 teams make the playoffs

- The offense CAN'T remain THIS BAD. Eaton, Melky, Abreu, LaRoche, Alexei, Gillaspie, Flowers, Soto. ALL have hit better than this.

- The only guy who is possibly overachieving is Avisail, and who's to say he can't get better?

- The starting pitching is starting to come around

- Chris Sale threw a masterpiece against Baltimore. He's not going to finish with an ERA in the mid-3s. He seems to be past the setback from missing spring training.

- Samardzija is not going to end up with an ERA closer to 4 than 3.

- Quintana may still be the unluckiest starter in baseball, but his ERA in the 4s is not where it's going to end up.

- Carlos Rodon is now in the rotation, and is likely to give us a lot of good starts

- John Danks just pitched his first shutout since 2011, and looks capable of pitching at least as well as last year, when he was a .500 pitcher.

- The bullpen can pitch better than it has. And we may have reinforcements coming at some point this year.

- Our expected W-L is 19-30, but we're 4 games better than that. Not sure if that's good or bad, but I'm taking it as a good sign, since we are maximizing the return on the performance we're getting.

 

If I were the Sox brass, I wouldn't be planning on making any kind of fire sale. I would stay the course, and expect the team to shake itself out of its offensive doldrums. When it does, the starting pitching and bullpen could still let the team get on a roll.

 

One 8-2 stretch would put us 3 games over .500, which would rank us 5th in the AL.

 

This is a very different team than last year. Melky, LaRoche, Garcia (who didn't play much last season), Soto, Sanchez/Johnson, Beckham at 3rd, Bonafacio, Shuck -- all are new. Samadzija, Rodon, Duke, Robertson, Jennings, Albers (DL) are all new. That's more than half of the roster.

 

It's far too soon to throw in the towel, just 49 games in. Let's see what happens through the All Star break. I hope Hahn is looking to improve, not cut and run.

 

GO SOX!!

nice post an all true..our main goal should be in winning games against our central rivals. I still believe in this team even though fundamentals don't look so good

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Eaton, Melky and LaRoche are all showing signs of life. Avi has been awesome. Abreu has been above average, but we know he can adjust to the league.

 

Conor and Gordon need to start strictly platooning. You hope Alexei pulls his head out of his ass. One of Sanchez or Johnson can figure out how to hit and defend. Finally, trading for a catcher.

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The division is really tough and we'd have to jump a lot of teams, so I'm not sure we can do that even with positive regression from our offense, but I'm not sure I buy the Tigers as "elite". Their offense has been a lot worse this year than in years past, I think their rotation has overachieved, and they still don't have a great bullpen. They've been struggling lately overall as well.

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QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 1, 2015 -> 01:12 PM)
Eaton, Melky and LaRoche are all showing signs of life. Avi has been awesome. Abreu has been above average, but we know he can adjust to the league.

 

Conor and Gordon need to start strictly platooning. You hope Alexei pulls his head out of his ass. One of Sanchez or Johnson can figure out how to hit and defend. Finally, trading for a catcher.

 

While I agree that Eaton and LaRoche are playing better, Melky is showing absolutely no signs of life. His May line is .220/.258/.260 and he is .242/.242/.303 over his last 7. He's been a very big reason this offense has been awful this season. Very clearly off the juice.

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QUOTE (Dunt @ Jun 1, 2015 -> 07:41 PM)
While I agree that Eaton and LaRoche are playing better, Melky is showing absolutely no signs of life. His May line is .220/.258/.260 and he is .242/.242/.303 over his last 7. He's been a very big reason this offense has been awful this season. Very clearly off the juice.

 

before i admit to that, i still would move in the lineup to around flowers bat.

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